New Almond Butter, girly purchase and more suprise!! ^_^

Okay. Let me say the surprise first! Star is NOT coming this Friday, but TODAY!!! I'm going to pick him up right after I finish this post!!! YEAH~~~ I love him!!! He knew that I wanted him to come as soon as possible so he booked the first flight he could get, which is Wednesday night and he'll arrive on Thursday 7.30 AM!!! So excited!!! ^_^

Now, let's move to the new batch of Almond Butter. I made not one, but TWO kinds! The simple one, with just roasted almond and pinch of salt.
This time, really smooth!!!And the other one is a new creation. Remember my failed maple-raisin AB? I used half to made cornbread and was having the other half for breakfast, but I wasn't enjoying it much. So, something must be done! I used some of the new batch of AB, the rest of maple-raisin AB, 1/3 cup pumpkin puree, 2 tbsp maple butter and 1/4 cup raisin! Result? An extremely smooth Pumpkin maple Almond Butter!!! IT's sooooooo good!!!
Look how smooth is thisThe best part of making nut butter is to clean this with my tongue.... hahha.... such a tough job!!!^_^ Now, girly purchase! Look what I got today in the mailI bought all these for <$15. Lips colors Lovely pink nail polish
Check out my entire selection of nail polish
I don't know why I have all these, because I usually go to manicure and only use them for fun! ^_^ How many nail polish do you keep?

Finally, food! Another great day, followed almost the new challenge guideline.
Breakfast

• 1/3 c. rolled oats
• 1/3 c. almond milk
• 1/4 c. wheat berries
• 1/4 c. pumpkin
• 2 tbsp flax meal
• topping: 1 tbsp low fat plain yogurt + 1 tbsp maple-raisin AB + blueberries

YUM YUM~~~
I didn't really need AM snack, but had it anyway when I was waiting in the doc office: 1/3 of honest granola bar. (bad)
Lunch: chicken bamboo shot dish over "noodles" and a chopped tomato
Dessert: 2 squares of almond cornbread
I kep PM snack small (good): 1 slice of WW with LC and an apple
I went to swim pool, swam for an hour, showered, moisturized and felt amazing!! :)
Early dinner at 7pm (good): tortilla veggie pizza!!! I used Tj's rice tortilla for the dough, topped with homemade sauce, mushrooms, mini peppers, broco-flower and part-skim mozzarella.It was delicious!!!! I need to have this more often!!!
Dessert was amazing: 1 cup of low fat plain yogurt + 2 tbsp wheat berries + 1 square of almond cornbread crumbled + coconut flakes
It was delicious, but maybe too much yogurt, I felt a little bloated afterwards!
Day 2 of the challenge and Day -1 of Star arrival was FABULOUS!!! ^____^

Question: Any guess about how I'll spend these two days with Star? What kind of dates do you think we'll get?

jetlag away & new study spot in! ^_^

I'm so glad to say that I finally found my near-perfect study spot! and with hot water!!! This is how it looks like
It's not nearly-luxury but I was happy with it. (Oh.... sorry if you don't know what I'm talking about, go to my previous post!). A wide desk, a comfort chair and water heater!!! yep~~~~
Yesterday I woke up at 5 am (jetlag free), had my daily dosis of yoga: 20 min morning flow #3 and the 20 min power vinyasa flow #3. mmmm..... the perfect way to begin the day! :D
Had the repetitive breakfast (sorry if I'm boring you): blended black rice porridge heated with a beaten egg in it, dry pumpkins and a spoon of GYG.This might not look good, but it does taste great and full of nutrition! (when I eat it, I remind me how many good thing it does to my body and I like it even more! ^_^ good trick, right?)
I arrived at my office with 3 bags: computer bag, lunch bag and a bag with my new study-buddies (water heater and my fav. kitty mug). Settled down and began to work at 8.30am! So excited for my first productive day in 2009!
Work went pretty well. 5 min break to have this goodie: Quaker True Delight Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond. As you can see,this is really Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond bar. soooooooo good this one!! even better than the coconut one. Reason? Chewy cherries pieces, crunchy almonds and BIG chunks of chocolate.
Lunch was repetitive as well: rice with dates, tofu with black fungus and greens.Repetitive PM snack: frozen blueberries+yogurt+granola.
I couldn't have another repetitive meal...so when I finished working around 6pm I went to TJ's. I came back at 8pm... opsssss.... too late to cook a big meal.... so something quick and yummy!
yeah~~~ my first pizza in 2009! topped with eggplants, broccoli slaw, cheese and 2 slices of roasted turkey breast from Tj's.
mmmmmmm......... muah muah~~ ^.~
Non repetitive dessert: a la Erin!
dates + PB!
It was a very nice and enjoyable Saturday (from working? am I workaholic? from eating repetitive meals?) from whatever reason! :D

Another funny thing during these last couple of days was that 3 friends came to me for relationship related counselling! hahahha..... I know I'm not an expert on the issue and have no expertise on counseling like Erin, but I do enjoy helping to my friends and happy to know that they feel secure telling me their most personal thoughts. But.... wait a moment.... I was just thinking about going to a therapist for my stress... and I'm counselling to others?? is that weird? ;)

I hope you guys had a fabulous Saturday and have a great Sunday!
I promise that I will do some meal planning and cooking so I don't bore you my lovely friends too much.

Question (since most of who read this blog are girls): how much $$ do you spend on skin care? I'm just curious! ^_^ I spend a lot!!!!!!! way too much that I'm embarrassed to say it!

last minute shopping tour~~~~

Bad (-1 point for each) : none
Good (1 point for each):

• A long talk to mom (even I'm going to see her in less than 72 hs.)
• Gifts for Dad and uncle.
  

Sum: 2
I had a good sleep last night, woke up feeling fabulous!!! Then, after breakfast I called my mom with last updates about my packing and gifts. I wanted to buy more gifts for my family (although my bags are already full) but didn't know what to buy. My dearest mom told me that my Dad loves the polo T-shirt I bought him last year, so I changed my plan of another leisure/lazy day for shopping. I spent all day long doing shopping, from one store to another. Results? 2 t-shirts for my Dad, 1 t-shirt for my uncle; two new bowls for me ;) and some cosmetics for me too!!!! ^_^ I was pretty tired when I got home. Shopping is fun, but too much isn't.

okay. Some eats! (not very exciting, because of the shopping tour, I didn't have a real meal until dinner).
Breakfast was pretty good

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1/2 banana
• vanilla + cinnamon + flax meal
• 1/3 cup whole vanilla french yogurt
• 1/2 cup blackberries

This combo deserves a Holy Yum~~~~~~ ^_^
After I talked to mom and decided to head to shopping, I munched a blueberry muffin first
and then packed an apple and a muffin sandwich with chocolate PB as lunch, because I was going alone and I wouldn't eat alone at the food court (that's too sad. But shopping alone isn't. Actually I think sometimes I prefer doing it alone!)
Back home around 4pm I prepared a good snack with one of my new bowl: fage+raspberries+kamut puffs.I had also a handful of almonds.I was going to have dinner with a friend who's moving to Houston for work. But when he called me he said some other friends of him (who I don't know) are inviting him for dinner and if I wanted to join them. I didn't want to go a dinner with most strangers, so I proposed to have a coffee with him alone before his dinner so we can have a better talk.
Back home, I craved a REAL meal. So I made a portbello pizzagrilled tofu and some frozen veggies. Oh... and the other half can of split peas soup.
Delish~~~~~~~~
Dessert: muffin!!! I didn't realize that I was leaving on Monday when I bought them (6) yesterday, so I'm having them as snack and dessert. I don't complain about it though since it's really good. I like that it's small in size, very moist, and not so sweet! (I bought them in Tj's)

Tomorrow is my last day before I flight home. My plan is to do some workout (I haven't workout for two days and my body is asking me for it), finish packing and to be excited!!!!!

I hope everyone had a good Saturday, got all the gifts and have everything set for the holiday!

bigggggg surprise!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bad (-1 point for each) : None
Good (1 point for each):

• A big surprise from Tiffie @Miss tiffie munches!!!! This definitely worth 2 full points!!!!
• Marathonic grading! I graded 69 final exams in 6 hours!!!
• Great spin class at 7.15am!
  

Sum: 4
FABULOUS DAY~~~~~
Okay, let me go to the detail of the big surprise! Actually the surprise came yesterday, but I wasn't at home so the ups man dropped off the package at the leasing office. I knew it was something from Tiffie, but I didn't know that it was going to be such a BIG package.It's the BIG SIX assorted flavor from Peanut & Co.woooooooooooooooo............ Unbelievable!!! Isn't it? It's my first gift some another blogger! I can't describe how happy and excited I am.
I couldn't wait longer and open the dark chocolate dream bottle for a big spoon!!!! wooooo......it's heaven!!!!!! It's soooooo delicious! Smooth, perfect sweetness, goshhhh..... it's more like a chocolate mousse than Peanut Butter!!! Love it!!!!!!!
I love ya Tiffie! (she might not read this since she's flying back to Taiwan right now) ^_^.

Today's eats was better than yesterday.. (don't expect nothing great either)
Breakfast (6am)

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1 chopped apple
• 1 tbsp flax meal
• cinnamon + ginger powder
• 1/3 cup whole milk Tj's yogurt (Savannah didn't finish it and she left this morning to China, so I'll have to finish it somehow)

yum yum~~~~ But look my coffee, it's so weird. I'm running out of creamer so I used soy milk. Why it looks like this??? Anyone knows why? Because when I buy coffee at Co-op and add soy milk, it doesn't look like that.
Then I went to the spin class.....wonderful~~~ sweaty and happy. My stat
Duration: 51min
Average Heart Rate: 150
Maximum: 165
Calories burned: 313
Hold exam, grading at the library and back home.
Lunch was leftover veggie ricotta pudding again (last portion)Also packed a Tj's muffin with PB.Almonds too.
Back home..... Starving again! But the problem is that I cleaned my fridge too well....I had no food at home! well....yes, some. But no veggies at all! So that means no food for me. First, I had another spoon of PB and then I runned to the supermarket to get some veggies for my tortilla pizza. An hour later, my dinner was ready.topping: broccoli, zucchini, tofu, tomato sauce, mozarella, S+P, basil.
And more veggies on the side: frozen brussel sprouts and yellow squash.
This is so good!!!!!!!! Tortilla pizza is definitely my favorite new food this year!!!!! ^_^
Dessert: fage + frozen blueberries.
What a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^____^ AMAZING!!!!

I guess everyone is busy going to holiday parties and/or shopping for gifts. Hope you enjoyed your day as much as I did.